Earlier Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus complained about the unfavorable situation for Minsk in the relationship with Russia and kickbacks in some issues. According to Lukashenko, Russia is not willing to develop the bilateral relations within the Union State. Russia blocks the Belarusian goods at the border and demands from citizens of other countries to cross Russian-Belarusian border only at special checkpoints. The leader of Belarus states that there is a necessity to move forward on the bilateral cooperation but the sides have to give kickbacks from time to time.

The Union State is a supranational union consisting of Russia and Belarus with the so-called united political, economic, military, customs, currency, judicial, humanitarian and cultural space. The Treaty on the Creation of the Union State was signed on December 8, 1999, in Moscow and the Actions Program on the implementation of the points of the Treaty on the Creation of the Union State came into force on January 26, 2000, after the agreement was ratified by both countries.